Apple removes 5k questionable apps

[meStevo]

Over 5000 apps stricken from the Apple app store, new rules in place

So if any apps had any sexual connotations, they were dropped from the Apple app store today.

New rules from Apple with commentary from the above post...

1. No images of women in bikinis (Ice skating tights are not OK either)
2. No images of men in bikinis! (I didn’t ask about Ice Skating tights for men)
3. No skin (he seriously said this) (I asked if a Burqa was OK, and the Apple guy got angry)
4. No silhouettes that indicate that Wobble can be used for wobbling boobs (yes – I am serious, we have to remove the silhouette in this pic)
5. No sexual connotations or innuendo: boobs, babes, booty, sex – all banned
6. Nothing that can be sexually arousing!! (I doubt many people could get aroused with the pic above but those puritanical guys at Apple must get off on pretty mundane things to find Wobble “overtly sexual!)
7. No apps will be approved that in any way imply sexual content (not sure how Playboy is still in the store, but …)

 

[dmendenjr]

Yet I'm sure all of the overt drug references in GTA:Chinatown wars is still ok... What does this tell you? Better to simulate selling H than watch people in bikinis.

If you are going to be censoring morality, might as well be fair...

 

[meStevo]

Yeah, by making themselves the morality police, it's a slippery slope of 'why is x ok but y isnt'

 

[BlackHitachi]

Honestly this does not surprise me. It's seems the i phone has been taken over by kids. No i do not agree with what they are doing but can understand it.

 

[TheForce]

When will the apple logo be stricken from the store. After all isn't the apple the forbidden fruit?

 

[mike123abc]

Honestly this does not surprise me. It's seems the i phone has been taken over by kids. No i do not agree with what they are doing but can understand it.

More likely an issue with the iTouch... Seems to be the preteen object of desire now. They get to run all the apps...

 

[Big Dawg 23]

The decision by a company to tell me what I can install is a reason from me not owning a Iphone. I do have an Itouch. something else I do not like is if a company wants to develop an app for its employees to use you need to let Apple approve. I just moved from a Blackberry Tour to a Motorola Droid. There may be less apps, but the Droid is a great phone. Touch screen is as good if not better than the Iphone/Itouch.

 

[DetFan]

Yet they leave the playboy app and others like it..What is the real reason? Hmmm?

 

[uncrules]

Those apps could be making a come back under a new explicit category.

Apple Adds 'Explicit' Category for New App Store Submissions - Mac Rumors

Just days after Apple removed over 5000 "overtly sexual" applications from the App Store, the company appears to have taken a curious turn that could result in the reinstatement of many of these applications.

Cult of Mac reports and MacRumors has confirmed that Apple has added a new "Explicit" category in the iTunes Connect system for App Store submissions. The category is included in drop-down menus that allow developers to select categories for their applications to be placed in, and appears alongside the traditional App Store categories such as "Books", "Entertainment", and "Games".

The reason for Apple's addition of the new category is unknown, although it seems possible that the company may have reconsidered its decision to remove the "overtly sexual" applications in the face of backlash from developers and users and has decided to create a dedicated category in an attempt to find a middle ground in the controversy. The use of a dedicated category for explicit material could supplement the age-rating system used for all App Store applications to easily make the entire category invisible to certain users using Parental Controls.

 

[BobMurdoch]

So girls in figure skating outfits are "explicit"?

Just when I thought Americans couldn't get any more puritanical.

 

[uncrules]

Apple has pulled the explicit option already.

Apple Yanks “Explicit” Option from iTunes | TiPb

We are sorry to pass on the news, but Apple has yanked the “explicit” category that was spotted earlier today within the App Store submission software, iTunes Connect.

An iPhone developer tipster told Gizmodo s/he verified the removal by contacting Apple via telephone and were basically told it was something Apple was considering but not to expect to see the explicit option back anytime in the near future.

So it looks like explicit content has seen its day in App Store — just another reason for some of you to jailbreak, eh?

[Via Gizmodo]

 

[meStevo]

Now they've removed wi-fi locating apps now.

Apple purges WiFi finders from the App Store

“We received a very unfortunate email today from Apple stating that WiFi-Where has been removed from sale on the App Store for using private frameworks to access wireless information,” writes user codemonkey57, presumably of the company’s dev team.

“Private frameworks” in Apple parlance refers to various software routines that have not yet been published in the official iPhone/iPad SDK.

 

[mperdue]

Now they've removed wi-fi locating apps now.

Apple purges WiFi finders from the App Store

From another story on the subject...

Avi Greengart, citing information from Apple, said the company's action was consistent with its policy against programs that use private application programming interfaces.

"The Wi-Fi-finder apps using private APIs have been pulled from the store for violating Apple's policy of not allowing private APIs, while Wi-Fi-finder apps that do not violate these terms are still available in the App Store," Greengart told us.

A non-published interface is a violation of Apple's terms of agreement with developers, and the company has long weeded out private-API applications because of security and compatibility issues.